Memphis' Blog: All Categories

I have been stating that the Memphis area real estate market has picked up in the last few months and appears to have a decent amount of steam behind it. Well, let's take a look at a favorite subdivision of mine located in Collierville called Halle Plantation. The Collierville real estate market is different than the Memphis market, but still will show similar signs in some respects.

Currently there are 23 active listings in Halle Plantation ranging from $325,000 to $645,000 and 2600 square feet to over 5,000. There have been only five closings registered in the Memphis MLS since February 15th, 2007, but that may be mis-leading.

As I said before, the market picked up just a few months ago (meaning around eight weeks ago) The average days on market in the…

While Katharine did have one showing today for one of her listings in Lakeland, TN; for the most part here in Memphis the buyers have seemed to have taken the day off for searching for real estate. Memphis Realtors did no such thing, as AI received a dozen phone calls from agents checking on listing information, contract issues and the like.

Hopefully people spent the day having dinner with their mother or mother in law, cooking for the wife and mother of their children, or some other respectful gesture to show your appreciation for the caring mother in their lives.

As for me? I ordered flowers for my wife and my mother weeks ago (it's a busy time of the year and I didn't want it to slip by) and we are going to the mother in law's home to drop some…

Nationwide, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.15, for the week ending May 10th, down from last week's 6.16%.  Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.58%.  The average for the 15-year FRM this week is 5.87%, unchanged from last week’s 5.87%.  One-year “T”ARMs were up at 5.48% and five-year “T”ARMs averaged 5.89% up from last week’s 5.87%. 

"Low employment growth in April – the slowest pace since November 2004 – and downward revisions to both February and March job growth tempered market concerns of future increases in the rate of inflation," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "As a result, mortgage rates were little changed this week.  Despite a slowdown in house price growth, borrowers continue to…

There has been negative talk about the real estate industry from the subprime market to the abundance of new home inventories, by myself, local and national media alike.

However; the past four weeks or so we have seen a very large increase in the amount of phone calls, search queries, and general buyers activity. Katharine and I have written 7 contracts in the last few weeks and have more buyers and sellers in the pipeline that appear to be working toward more pending contracts.

The significance now, versus a few months ago, is the increase in the Memphis home buyers versus the sellers. These are good signs for the Memphis real estate market. The inventory is still a little high compared to the buyers activity, but no where near the crisis mode for…

        In both Memphis and Nashville I know, it is becoming more and more popular for families to relocate in from other parts of the country for business reasons. We are attracting larger firms as they expand and  here in Memphis we have had several large companies move their headquarters here; such as International Paper, Schering Plough, FedEx has been here and other. We welcome all to the wonderful state of Tennessee!

        In early April, FORBES magazine released a ranking of the "Best
Places for Businesses and Careers" nationwide.  Tennessee did VERY well
in their rankings, with three cities in the top 100 nationwide:

        - Knoxville ranked 5th in the nation.
        - Nashville ranked 9th.
        - Kingsport ranked 93rd.

        The…

Here is a report from the Tennessee Association of Realtors (TAR) about the number of licensed real estate agents in the state of Tennessee. A large amount of these numbers inevitably are in the Nashville area which saw a much larger "boom" in the real estate market than Memphis and other major cities did. But, it does show how the numbers go up and down with the housing market in general.

It is my opinion that the tight times that are upon us and are getting tighter will weed out at least one third of these agents in the next year. Of which I have noticed in the Memphis area has already started. I know numerous agents that are still holding o to their license for the short term in the hopes something will happen for them, but have started back at Fed Ex…

I am fortunate enough to be a part of the Memphis Area Association of Realtors MLS Board. We have been testing and tweaking and evaluating a new Memphis Multiple Listing Service called MLXchange. I had no idea how antiquated our old system was until we started the initial testing phase some weeks ago. To put it in to perspective, think of it as replacing a computer that was built in 1990 with one that was built in the year 2002. The new MLS system is much closer to a Windows or Internet Explorer feel. Crisp, clean, easy to navigate once you get the feel for it, and easy access to an abundant of information.

It does have it's limitations, as any software program does, but over all it will be a great leap forward for both the Realtors and the public. Now, I…

Nationwide, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.16%, for the week ending March 29, unchanged from last week's 6.16%.  Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.35%.  The average for the 15-year FRM this week is 5.86%, down from last week’s 5.90%.  One-year “T”ARMs were up at 5.43% and five-year “T”ARMs averaged 5.88% down from last week’s 5.91%.

"Recent data releases sent conflicting signals about the direction of the housing market," said Frank Nothaft , Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.  "The rise in existing home sales in February to a 6.69 million unit pace, the highest level since last April, offered some hope of firming in housing demand. In contrast, February's new home sales fell unexpectedly to 848,000 units, the…